Interested in public policy? The DC budget? DC children, youth, and families? Information and intelligence that improves advocacy is the stock in trade of this blog.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

New revenue projection portends tougher budget than many expected

As if the national news were not bad enough, we wake up to local falling revenue projections yet again. David Nakamura and Nikita Stewart told the world that the city is facing an $800 million revenue loss for FY 2010; of that, $350 million is a new loss, announced this morning by Natwar Gandhi, the city's CFO. Nakamura added to his first story in his D.C. Wire piece.

The challenge for advocates, providers and others: Effecting change, advocating for a "good" budget for children, youth and families in this environment. Many in the executive and legislative branches fear another budget season of what has been described as feeding at the public trough. The elected and appointed officials I have talked with want to do right by people; the difficulty is doing it with close to $1 billion less in Local funds. Any ideas on how we do our advocacy in this economic meltdown? Email me your thoughts and I will share them with other loyal readerrs.